Skip to main content

It Came From the '90s: For D’arcy (Sail on Silver Girl)


This series looks back at the 1990s and its influence on the generation of people who came of age during the decade.

Search any dorm room across campus, circa 1995, and you'd likely find a copy of Simon and Garfunkel's Greatest Hits. Many copies would've been acquired through BMG's or Columbia House's music clubs ("12 Hot Hits for a Cool Penny"). "Cecilia" was always a hallway jam favorite, especially in the girls' dorms, but "Bridge over Troubled Water" was deep, man.


Sail on silver girl
Sail on by
Your time has come to shine
All your dreams are on their way
See how they shine
Oh, if you need a friend
I'm sailing right behind
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will ease your mind
Like a bridge over troubled water

I will ease your mind

That image of "Silver Girl" was particularly evocative to me—of what, I wasn't quite sure, but it was all so lovely and damaged in its own twee way. Who was this Silver Girl? Was I sailing right behind her? I think I was. Maybe we could help ease each other's minds.


Then the video for Smashing Pumpkins' "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" premiered that fall, and there she was: the Silver Girl. Bass guitar slung low, a white-silver mini dress hugging her hips, with azure hair cut into a bob and white-stockinged legs a mile long that led down to chunky-heeled, silver ankle boots. Coal-black eyeliner around somber eyes, dark lipstick layered atop a fixed pout. This glam-punk-alterna-girl, this fallen angel, trading in her wings for an almighty bass. Some of us had a type back then, what can I say.

D'arcy Wretzky, bassist for the Pumpkins, was Silver Girl. She even seemed vaguely troubled, shy and uneasy with the spotlight, maybe in need of a bridge over her troubled water. Being in a band with Billy Corgan certainly couldn't have been easy. She needed a friend, someone who'd help her to shine. At least this was how I saw her in the video. I have a feeling this was a vision only I saw. Because, maybe I needed to see it.

The song, and the album it was on, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, were majestic and epic, perfect expressions of our (Gen X) sincerity, myopia, distrust, angst, cynicism, our desire to be loved and our need to be alone, everything and nothing, all of it. Search any dorm room that year and you'd likely find a copy of that album as well. It was the band's music that spoke to me—few bands meant as much to me as the Pumpkins did then—but D'arcy, that dark angel coated in sparkling silver, spoke to me too, if only briefly.


I was projecting something onto her, that's clear now. We do it all the time to each other, and to people we don't even know but who live inside the music, the literature, and the films we obsess over. D'arcy's resemblance to the Silver Girl I'd seen in my mind seemed to spark some recognition in me, some weird confirmation of something. It may have been as simple as believing that what my mind could conjure—an image of a character based on a few lines from an old folk-rock hit—could then manifest into reality, in the form of D'arcy Wretzky in that video, in that outfit, and with that Pumpkins song as the background noise for it all.

Or, maybe I was just a sucker for a cute girl slinging around a big bass. Considering what I remember about myself from 1995, that's probably a little closer to the truth.

Labels:

Comments

  1. Susan LeightonNovember 29, 2017 at 1:03 PM

    I was a Smashing Pumpkins fans. Looking at D'arcy, I was reminded of how I looked in the 90s. I had the wardrobe & the hair but not the blue streaks. Yes, those were the days. Great retro, Mike!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Words Seem Out of PlaceNovember 29, 2017 at 1:12 PM

      Very cool! Those were fun times, and a lot of the styles were awesome. Not all, of course. The excessively baggy men's and women's clothing makes me cringe now, but the glam influence from the '70s that seeped into everything was marvelous. D'arcy had a killer look during the band's height of popularity, that's for sure. Here's another example:

      https://pjensi.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/d-arcy-wretzky.jpg?w=326

      Delete
  2. Paul SNovember 30, 2017 at 2:40 AM

    I miss the 90s, although somehow The Smashing Pumpkins escaped my attention, back in the maelstrom of my youth. I love the fact your Silver Girl was brought to life in the form of D'arcy. Having watched the video of "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" I'm sure I would have remembered if I had seen it before.
    I enjoyed your article, although it's left me feeling kind of blue. Sometimes I wish I could build a time machine and go back to spend time with my own Silver Girls!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Words Seem Out of PlaceNovember 30, 2017 at 6:41 AM

      Thanks, Paul. I miss the '90s too, thus this series. They've been great writing exercises too, for the most part, especially this one on the Silver Girl. BTW, thanks for upper casing that in your comment because it prompted me to go back and upper case--which I'd done in my first draft, then in a fit of authorial self-doubt, converted down to lower case. I think it has more impact capitalized. Sorry the piece made you blue, but I felt a bit blue while writing it and that melancholic tone is certainly in the final piece. The spark of the idea was to keep it simple and to try and figure out what was going through my head back then, and this certainly led to a wistful feel to it all.

      If only we could travel back, just to say hey and to tell them what they meant to us. If only.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

All I Want For Christmas: Phoebe Cates's Monologue in Gremlins

Joe Dante's 1980s classic Gremlins will always be a subversive Christmas favorite. From Spike exploding in the microwave to Mrs. Daigle's "stairlift to hell", the movie is packed with deliciously transgressive moments that turn the holly jolly season right on its ear. None are more memorable, though, than Phoebe Cates delivering her legendary "worst thing that ever happened to me on Christmas" monologue. It's a jaw-dropping, tour-de-force moment, a truly horrific story that's also one of the most darkly comic moments in Christmas movie history. Cates really shines during this scene. There's no denying just how seminal that scene of hers in Fast Times at Ridgemont High was for a generation of young people, but her speech in Gremlins is equally important and a wonderful showcase for her serious and comedic acting skills.  Here's the speech, in its entirety. No Christmas season is complete without at least one viewing
Post a Comment
Read more

Blowing in the Wind: Marilyn Monroe and That Iconic White Dress

This month marks sixty-five years since one of the most iconic moments in twentieth-century popular culture: Marilyn Monroe’s angelic white dress being blown sky high by wind rushing up from a subway grate beneath her feet in the film  The Seven Year Itch . Billy Wilder shot multiple takes, while Sam Shaw snapped photo after photo for what had to be the biggest publicity stunt ever staged at the time. Marilyn wore two pairs of underwear for the shot, yet, as noted in Lois Banner's critical biography Marilyn: The Passion and the Paradox  (2012), "a dark blotch of pubic hair" remained visible to the 100 male photographers and over 1,500 male spectators, all of whom crowded eagerly around the set to gawk and drool.  Due to strict 1950s movie censorship laws, photos had to be doctored to white out the offending blotch, but those in attendance saw it, over and over, shot after shot. Marilyn's husband at the time, the extremely old fashioned Joe DiMaggio, stormed off th
Post a Comment
Read more

It Came From the '90s: Kelly Bundy and the Alternative Family Ideal

This series looks back at the 1990s and its influence on the generation of people who came of age during the decade. Very few television series in the 1990s were as polarizing as Married...with Children . People either loved it or they loathed it. TV critics and good upstanding Catholic families like mine fell into the latter category. Soon after it debuted during my first year of junior high in 1987 (not quite the '90s, but on the brink), my parents made it clear that we would not be watching. I believe the words they used were "vulgar," "unfunny," and, one of their perennial favorites, "risque." Of course, this meant it immediately took on a prurient appeal for me. Parents can never win, honestly. Kelly Bundy—the talented Christina Applegate, who never gets enough credit for elevating the blonde airhead trope into an art form—only further piqued my interest. She was like the girls in school with the absurdly voluminous hair and ridiculously sh
4 comments
Read more

"That girl looks just like Pat Benatar"

Linda, that girl looks just like Pat Benatar. I know. Wait, there are three girls here at Ridgemont who have cultivated the Pat Benatar look. I was just a kid when Fast Times at Ridgemont High opened in 1982. Still though, even at the tender young age of seven, I knew who Pat Benatar was, because a.) her music was all over the radio and even then I recognized the utter awesomeness of her vocal talent in songs like "Hit Me With Your Best Shot", and b.) some of the older girls around town were obviously cribbing their looks—clothes, hair, makeup, strut—from Benatar's own style. Benatar was ubiquitous. So, when I see or hear vintage-era Benatar now, I think of Fast Times , but mostly I remember that ubiquity—of both the performer and her legion of young imitators. I know it's not true, but when I recollect those years I swear every older girl looked like either Benatar, Juice Newton, or Joan Jett. It's easy to forget, years later, that
Post a Comment
Read more

Misspent Youth: Joanne Whalley

Looking back at the pop culture mainstays of this Gen-Xer's gloriously misspent youth. One of the most famous and oft-quoted Seinfeld scenes involves Bobka and Jerry's discovery of the existence of Cinnamon Bobka. After Elaine scoffs at the notion of such a thing, even calling it a "lesser Bobka," Jerry unleashes one of the great defenses of a freshly ground spice ever delivered: People love cinnamon. It should be on tables at restaurants along with salt and pepper. Anytime anyone says, "Oh This is so good. What's in it?" The answer invariably comes back, Cinnamon. Cinnamon. Again and again.  Joanne Whalley is like Cinnamon. Yes, I just compulsively double-checked my DVD copy and it's the unrated version, thank you very much. Let me explain. You see, during the formative years of my misspent youth, if I stumbled on a movie featuring the doe-eyed, petite, beautiful English actress, invariably I'd feel like Jerry does about Cin
2 comments
Read more

Misspent Youth: Randi Brooks

Looking back at the pop culture mainstays of this Gen-Xer's gloriously misspent youth. ***** A note on the series and this site: This might be the final post in the "Misspent Youth" series - at least here. Maybe it'll eventually move with me. Oh, right, I buried the lede: I've moved, and would love for you to come visit me at my new site, The Starfire Lounge ! Moving forward, this site will likely cease to be updated, but will remain around for posterity and your continued reading pleasure. I have a few more things to post here over the coming days or weeks as a sort of "everything must go" send-off to the old girl. I also plan to write a final farewell post to my main online home for the last five years. Stay tuned and, as always, thanks for reading. ***** It's no surprise that the talented but now mostly forgotten Randi Brooks would make an appearance in the Misspent Youth series. She may not be a household name, but her resume
Post a Comment
Read more

Margot Kidder and the Childhood Crush That Will Never Die

"I dream about sex, flying, and being chased by Nazis." — Margot Kidder,  Rolling Stone , "The Education of Margot Kidder", 1981 ***** File that quote under, "Reasons why I love Margot Kidder." Last month, Margot hopped a one-way flight with old pal Chris Reeve off into the stars and beyond, where they could reenact their iconic moment from  Superman  (1978), for all eternity. I wrote a little about Margot, here and here , trying to explain why this particular actress meant so much to me as a kid growing up in the 1980s. I thought that would be enough. It wasn't.* Those posts were my fumbling attempts to sort out just how large an impact Margot had on my young life, and, to my present-day surprise, how much she still means to me now. Before news of her death, I hadn't thought of her in ages. I assumed the early childhood crush I harbored for my Lois Lane had dwindled and faded. Ha! I was a fool. My crush on Margot was very
4 comments
Read more

It Came From the '90s: My Secret Crush on The Nanny

This series looks back at the 1990s and its influence on the generation of people who came of age during the decade. For six seasons in the 1990s, The Nanny made many of us laugh. At times, it could be downright hilarious . At others, well, not so much . This isn't a review of a '90s sitcom staple, though. No. This is simply an excuse to come clean about something I've kept buried deep inside for over two decades now: I had a secret crush on The Nanny herself, Fran Drescher. The unadulterated nineties-ness of this is practically blinding. And I love it. While The Nanny was sometimes quite funny, thanks largely to Drescher's spunky charisma and wholehearted commitment, the show was never considered hip. People my parents age seemed to love it, but my friends preferred, well, Friends . That smile! Those legs! That dress! It's all overloading my circuits. I watched Friends with my friends, but I also thoroughly enjoyed The Nanny , to
2 comments
Read more

"Opium Wars" by Zoe Lund

She wants there to be more of her. More space taken by her body, More decibels conquered by her voice, More time by her wakefulness, More equations by her addition. She wants more, I want less. Her blade is rusty, musty, sweaty and vain. I like it clean and sharp and dark-bright. She traffics in surplus, I bare my essentials. Her world is elastic but brittle. Mine is bony but moonlit. Hers flows, she ebbs. Mine ebbs, I flow. She dies in life, I live in death. —Zoe Lund, “Opium Wars”
3 comments
Read more

Misspent Youth: Morgan Fairchild

Looking back at the movies, music, television, and other pop culture mainstays of this Gen-Xer's gloriously misspent youth. Once I decided that Morgan Fairchild would be the subject of the next installment in this series, I did what I usually do and researched online for a bit, just to refresh my memory on details that might've previously been lost to time. Morgan Fairchild was legitimately one of the most potent sex symbols of the 1970s and '80s. Not that I needed much refresher when it came to Fairchild. Born Patsy Ann McClenny in Dallas, Texas, February 3, 1950, the American actress was everywhere during those oh-so-crucial formative years of my pop culture obsession. She loomed large in the growing ranks of proto-haughty glamour queens, a trope that was hot on prime time TV in the 1980s. The characters she was most well-known for were drop-dead gorgeous and didn't suffer fools lightly. Really, few ever did it better than Fairchild. The shirt do
3 comments
Read more